Product-packaging installations are known that comprise a series of filler stations each having a filler spout and a support member for supporting a receptacle beneath the filler spout, in order to enable receptacles to be filled in succession with a predetermined quantity of liquid product.
In such installations, the filler spout comprises a spout body having a top end connected to a feed duct and a bottom end provided with an orifice fitted with a controlled valve.
When the installation is started up for packaging a new product, it is necessary initially to ensure that the spout bodies are filled. Given the structure of the filler spouts, that requires the filler spouts to be fed while keeping their bottom orifices open until the ducts and the spout bodies have been completely purged of the air they contained initially, i.e. until a liquid that does not contain any bubbles of air flows out through the orifices. The liquid produce flowing out through each bottom orifice is collected in a collector adjacent to said orifice. In order to ensure that bubbles of air do not rise in the filler spout feed duct, it is necessary to allow the product to flow for a relatively long length of time during which the installation is not being used for packaging the product in receptacles.
In addition, for reasons of compactness, the collector used for recovering the product during the initial filling of the filler spout is generally also used for recovering the liquid used for washing and rinsing the filler spout, which means that it is not possible to envisage reusing the product that flows out during the initial filling of the filler spouts. This thus represents a loss, not only in terms of the cost of the unused product, but also in terms of the additional cost involved in processing the various fluids recovered by the collector.